Three-point threat is back as Raps down Wizards

A quarter of the way through the season the Raptors are on franchise record pace.

The 16-4 record through 20 games with last night’s 125-107 win over a troubled Washington Wizards club, the Raptors surpassed the previous best 15-5 start to the 2014-15 campaign.

That the Raptors have done that with their full complement of players only once in the 20 games speaks both to this groups potential and their depth.

Friday night marked the return of the earlier season success from behind the three-point line.

It has been a bit of a bone of contention of late but with OG Anunoby back in the fold after a three game absence due to injury and Fred VanVleet looking more like the threat he was a year ago from distance, things were looking much better last night.

As a team, the Raptors were 17-for-39 from behind the three-point arc on the night. That’s a season high for makes from distance, while the 44% success rate dwarfed all other efforts this year.

“We had a couple of guys back that could shoot, we’re slowly working those guys back in there,” a relieved Nick Nurse said. “Yeah, we hit some tonight. Started early and it kept on going.”

Anunoby and VanVleet were both 3-for-5 from long range while Danny Green made three of his seven. C.J. Miles, who also returned to the lineup last night, finally got one to fall on his sixth attempt of the night finishing up 1-for-7.

Kawhi Leonard didn’t have a big role in the long-distance game but he did lead the Raptors with 27 points and 10 rebounds following a night off in Atlanta on the second of back-to-back games.

“We’re playing well, I still think we can get better,” Leonard said of the Raptors who reached the quarter-pole last night. “Our whole lineup hasn’t been here, guys have been out, so once we just get everybody here, and playing, like I said this upcoming schedule is going to be good, just all of us playing, and getting that rhythm of playing, one day off and then game, it’s going to be good.”

The Raptors bench dominated Washington to the tune of a 59-39 edge Friday.

Toronto will get a little practice time Saturday and then are right back on the court Sunday night hosting Miami.

Raptors match best start in franchise history with win over Wizards

Slowly but surely the Raptors are getting back to full health. In the absence of health, Nurse has had to be a more creative than usual with his lineups. It hasn’t always been successful, but it has given Nurse and the team a better sense of what they have and more importantly what works and what doesn’t.

“Now that some guys are coming back you say, man, it gave some other guys a chance to shine or us to at least evaluate them and see where we can fit ’e’m in,” Nurse said. “It made us play really, really small sometimes with three, maybe four point guards at one time, and then it made us play really big the other night for the first time. We had Greg (Monroe)and Serge (Ibaka) together, which that one never really ran across my head before until it trotted out there the other night, and then we had Serge and JV (Jonas Valanciunas) back a couple times, too. Would we rather have our full complement of guys? Probably. But now once you kind of work through it, it gives you some certain learning opportunities and experiences. We’ll take the positives from it.”

Nurse’s players see the benefit as well.

“We know we’ve got 12 guys that can play every night,” veteran C.J. Miles said. “Every night there’s probably a guy that should have played a little more that doesn’t play, so we’re in a position where I don’t think it’s really hit us that hard yet. Obviously you want to have all your guys healthy and you want to have flexibility that you should be able to have every night but it’s just about next man up, getting other guys experience, getting other guys more time.”

ONE MAN CONVINCED

Leonard routinely answers the question about whether he is back to where he was pre-injury with some form of ‘I’m not looking to the past. I am only looking ahead.’ So chances are we’ll never get his actual feeling on where he believes he is in terms of his level of play.

Wizards head coach Scott Brooks says it’s not even a question anymore for him.

“I mean he’s back,” Brooks said pre-game. “You can probably say he is the best two -way player in basketball. And the way he takes the challenge of guarding the best players every night — and that takes a lot out of you physically but mentally you have to be mentally strong to challenge yourself every possession to guard the best players. And if you do get scored on you have to re-boot pretty quickly because you have to do the same thing the next time down the court.

“But he has the quickness, he has the post-up game, the mid-range game, he shoots threes, he gets to the free throw line,” Brooks said. “There is nothing he doesn’t do well.”

QUICK HITS

The Raptors welcomed back both Anunoby and Miles Friday night. Anunoby has been out since the Boston game when he fell and sprained his right wrist missing three games. Miles missed five games with a right adductor strain … The Raptors aren’t quite fully healthy with Norm Powell still out with that left shoulder subluxation but based on his pre-game workout he’s not far away from returning either.

When my assistant said there was a call from the White House, I picked up, said 'Hello' and started to ask if this was a prank

This Week's Flyers

Comments

Postmedia is pleased to bring you a new commenting experience. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. Visit our community guidelines for more information.